A parents teacher association (PTA) treasurer took advantage of the organisation’s "shambolic" financial system to steal more than £2,000 from her girls’ primary school funds.

Samantha Reddick, 38, took the money between December 9 2011 and May 25 2013 after she was put in charge of running the PTA’s accounts at Stanwell Fields Primary School.

The mother-of-two failed to deposit any cash into the PTA’s HSBC account, over her two-year tenure as its treasurer, and instead stole a total of £2,272.59 to help fund her own shopping, Guildford Crown Court heard during a four-day trial last week.

When they searched her Ravensborne Avenue home in Stanwell on April 1 last year, Surrey Police officers recovered £681.16 of loose change, that was being stashed in pots inside a Sports Direct bag.

Debt recovery letters for an outstanding mobile phone bill in her name were also discovered.

Reddick’s theft was only discovered when the school’s new head teacher, Colin Franklin, found a balance of just 89p in the PTA’s bank account after he had decided to disband the group and turn it into a charitable fund.

Jurors took just over an hour to return unanimous guilty verdicts on five counts of theft on Monday (February 23).

Reddick, who has worked at accountancy firm James Worley & Sons since 1998, was found not guilty of stealing £462.56 between November 1 2011 and September 30 2013.

Recorder Lawrence West QC ruled Reddick was not guilty of a further offence of stealing £1,200 prior to trial after the Crown failed to provide any evidence.

Reddick had claimed she stored the money at her home as she was unable to gain access to the account as she was not listed as a signatory.

Prosecutor Jonathan Rosen said the PTA’s system of counting or storing the money in the school’s safe after an event for a few days before being counted was a ‘shambles’.

When cross-examining Reddick last Friday (February 20), Mr Rosen said she had lied to PTA members when she told them there was £5,000 in its account as a ‘smoke screen’ to cover up what she had done.

“You gave those figures to shut the PTA members up to satisfy them and tell them what they needed to hear,” he said.

“This wasn’t the first attempt by you to start covering everything up and shove everything under the carpet.

“You never went to the bank. The bank account was working, you were just not a signatory with it. The reason you wanted to move banks was to mask your wrongdoing.”

Mr Rosen added that Reddick started to panic when Mr Franklin asked her to return all the documents relating to the account.

“You had control of the bank statements and needed to keep them secret,” he said.

“This is a fabrication you’ve invented, post event, to cover your tracks. Nothing was passed to the school, documents, books or cash.